When I first started this blog back in 2009, I had no idea if anyone would even read it. I wasn’t exactly sure what I would blog about, though gardening and food were two things that came to mind. I generally blog about things that interest me, and things I think my readers might also find interesting. But what do my readers like to read? One way to find that out is to look at the site stats periodically, something WordPress makes pretty easy to do. So here’s a summary of the most-visited pages here in 2015.
When I first decided to try infusing coffee grounds in oil, I had no idea it would prove to be one of my most-visited posts of all time. Coming in at the #1 visited post for 2015 is Coffee Infused Oil. I had visions of using it to make soap, lip balm, and lotions. We’ve made a hand soap with it, though I haven’t posted the recipe here yet. And I’ve used it in lotions, though I haven’t really settled on a recipe for that either. But my favorite thing to do with the coffee oil is make Coffee Lip Balm with it.
coffee infused olive oil
Coming in at #2 for the year is my recipe for making Vitamix Tomato Sauce. Our high-speed Vitamix blender has changed the way we make tomato sauce and other tomato products for sure. This isn’t really a recipe as much as it is a technique, and I find it has saved me countless time in the kitchen turning our homegrown tomatoes into sauce, paste and ketchup.
using Vitamix to puree tomatoes
The #3 most visited post in 2015 is a recipe for French Green Clay soap. My wife and I started making soap not long after we started blogging. This is still one of my favorite soap recipes, and we have used it with other clays and EO’s to make a number of soaps, including a couple we made in the last month or so.
French Green Clay soap
Coming in at #4 is my recipe for making Homemade Paprika. If I had known how easy it was to make paprika at home, I would surely have been doing it years ago! I’ve had fun the last few years experimenting with different varieties of peppers. And I’ve also discovered that using Smoked Peppers makes a lovely smoked paprika too.
Homemade Paprika
And #5 for the year is Dehydrating Garlic. We love our garlic here at Happy Acres, and dehydrating is a great way to preserve it for later use. You can also turn the dehydrated pieces into garlic powder, which is what I do with a lot of ours.
dehydrated garlic
Rounding out the top ten for 2015 were Coffee Lip Balm, From Freezer To Fork: Squash, Basic Fermented Hot Sauce, Sourdough Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake, and Easy Refrigerator Pickled Garlic. It is interesting to note there is not a single gardening blog post anywhere in the top ten, though How Hardy Is Lettuce? came in at #11 and Growing Eggplant In Containers was #14.
I hope you have enjoyed this recap of some of what my blog visitors have been reading this past year. Thanks for all your comments, emails and blog visits, and I’m looking forward to sharing more of our adventures and experiences in the coming year. And let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year and all the best in 2016!
This is fascinating and amusing, who would have thought that coffee infused oil would be #1! I had to go do a quick look at the top draws on my blog and as usual the number 1 post by a wide margin is the one that I wrote years ago about growing caper plants from seed. Second place seems to go to a post about green coriander seeds. A few of my spotlight posts are also up there. I keep my recipes on a separate blog so they aren’t even in the running. It is fun to see what draws an audience.
We love coffee around here, so I’m not altogether surprised that the coffee infused oil took the top spot ;). You do so many interesting things – it’s something to aspire to, once I have a bit more free time.
Wishing you and your wife a very happy New Year, Dave!
Thanks Margaret! Happy New Year to you and your family too.
I often scratch my head and wonder why some of my posts are so well read and others that I think would be more interesting proved to be not as popular.
Happy New Year, Dave! Isn’t it interesting to see what people like to read about? Coffee infused oil is a pretty unique blog topic. However, it doesn’t surprise me that it is your most popular post since so many of us love coffee. I also love the idea of using a Vitamix to make no waste tomato sauce that includes the skins and seeds. What a timesaver and the skins and seeds help to thicken the sauce. You have so many helpful tutorials and inspiring variety spotlights. These would do very well on Pinterest too. Consider setting up a “Best of Our Happy Acres” board and pin your top 10 posts and you will become very popular 🙂
Thanks Rachel, and Happy New Year to you too!
I vote for the blender sauce recipe and dehydrated garlic. Two good ways to easily preserve the harvest I have used. I checked Blogger and my most popular post by far is one from 2012 on planting garlic and shallots.
Happy New Year, Dave!
Happy New Year, Dave! When I started my blog (in 2010) it took a while to “take off”, because there are just so many blogs out there and getting noticed is not easy. However, I now have an established readership with which I’m happy, and I’m sure the same applies to you. The key is to write lucidly and concisely, and explain things clearly (with good photos), all of which you do well.